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Work 4 Peace,Hold All Life Sacred,Eliminate Violence! This is my often neglected blog mostly about my travels across country in my mobile billboard truck as I attempt to engage in dialogue with people in hopes to wake us up and inspire action to change our country and communities and selves. And it is froth with my opinions, insights, analyses toward that end of holding all life sacred, dismantling the empire and eliminating violence while creating the society and life we want

Friday, August 13, 2004

on the road again - to the unwelcoming rnc

take one

to say I’m a little tired leaving on this trip is like saying gwb is a little dangerous to our world! I have been back in California for about 6 days but I have to head out again. it is a early to be heading for the rnc unwelcoming, but I’ve got a customer in Chicago who wants her stuff around the 15th so I must hit the road. even tho I left the bay area around 8:00p.m., I had 2 more pick ups in California – one in Vallejo & one in davis – so I’m just getting outta California around 1:00a.m.!!! I rested at a great rest stop in our beautiful sierra nevadas, before venturing back into the divided land of Nevada. folks in Nevada are either hysterically glad to see me or not – it’s the ‘nots’ that are distressing, but the ‘glads’ that keep me going.
driving into Nevada early this morning, I was immediately greated by 2 fuck you’s – not a pleasant way to begin traversing the state but by the end of Nevada, they were the only f.u.’s I got – it was 17 resounding yeas to 2 nays! while I was at a Nevada rest stop, a white male approached me & told me he loved my truck. we began talking, as we stood on the sidewalk in front of the walkway to the bathrooms. he identified himself as a viet nam war veteran who was presently living in Montana. he said at first he supported the cry to war, when he was caught up in the grief and horror of 9/11 – and when he was surrounded by neighbors, friends & family who were on that war path also. then he began having conversations w/the people important in his life & he realized he didn’t feel the way they did – he recognized the blanket hatred of iraqi’s as so familiar to the blanket hatred he was supposed to feel for the Vietnamese. he said he was traveling to California because he came to realize at 58 years old & during this time of u.s. occupation of iraq that he was not living the life he wanted to live, and he was not getting the support in Montana to live the life he wanted to live. he said he’d lived in California for a few years after the war (in Vietnam) and he wanted to return to that way of life.
as we had this conversation, I had noticed a late model nevada pick-up truck highly decorated in decals of flags, god bless America, and something about guns parked close to us. an older white man was scowling about, slamming car doors, and grunting audible but incomprehensible. when he got our attention, he hurled something like ‘you’re a bunch of crazies’ in our direction. the male I was conversing w/immediately pulled himself up & began to defend himself, identifying himself as a viet nam war vet – which the other guy says he was too. my initial relief at this younger fellow taking on his peer leaving me free to observe, was soon turned into dismay as these 2 began talking about how they just didn’t bomb enuff in north Vietnam to end the war immediately & here they are doing it again.
I said loudly & probably equally as disgustedly, ‘that is precisely what is wrong w/you men & your inability to solve any problem without increasing your violence. it is wrong to bomb people. period. it is not human, let alone Christian which I see you both are.’
I walked away as quickly as the older man got in his shiney truck & peeled out of the parking lot. the other fellow raced over to me, apologizing for his succumbing to the camaraderie of military buds. later he was to shake his head, holding his beard, and wonder aloud why it was so easy for him to fall into that military bull shit.

About Me

i'm now a 66 yr old (still with a golden age pass to get into national parks FREE) jewish lesbian anti-racist mother - and grandmother - striving radical womonist/feminist; daughter & granddaughter of survivors of the holocaust, mother of a young amazon healer & amazing human being, lover of wimmin & student of conscious living............even tho i am the one actually driving the truck, i could not even head out from home if it were not for the support of many, many, many wimmin (and several men as well). i am now working on trying to publish my book "But What Can I Do? A Handbook for change: myself, my community, my country. I still continue to offer Racism Awareness workshops geared for White people, NO DRONES workshops, and any other that is needed. if you want to help support this journey, please click the "Make a Donation" link below- it's secure!